One of the most important points in a medieval European people's life was when it converted to Christianity. By becoming a Christian nation, a people entered the larger sphere of European politics and opened new avenues for alliances. Of course, the conversion never happened instantly, and seldom happened bloodlessly; the Carolingians forcibly occupied and converted Saxony,(1) and Lithuania remained heathen until the end of the fourteenth century, despite the depredations of the Teutonic Knights.(2) While the interplay between pagan and Christian elements in society was different in each country, Sweden and Norway are interesting in that we are provided with evidence that the majority of the people initially resisted Christianity, and that its introduction was at the hands of kings raised in foreign countries.
In order to understand the changes wrought by conversion, it is necessary to begin with both the historical events that led up to conversion and consideration of the social structure that existed before the imposition of Christianity. From that basis, one can then speak to the impact of Christianity, and how they affected the region. Those changes were significant, altering the place of religion, the role of kings, and the place of women within Scandinavian society.
The Process of Conversion
There is little mention of missionary activity in Norway before 950, when Hakon Athelstenfostre(3) (called "the Good") became king of Norway. As his name implies, Hakon was reared in fosterage at the court of the English king Athelstan, and was therefore Christian. However, as the Heimskringla notes "because all the land was heathen and there was much blood offering and many powerful men, and because he seemed to have great need of the help and good will of many of them, he took the advice to fare privily with Christianity." (4) He personally worked to convert those close to him and brought a bishop and several priests to Norway to aid in the conversion(5). He then made clear his intention to convert the entirety of Norway to his faith.
The people of Trondheim referred the decision to convert to the Thing(6) to be held at Frosta. Hakon's Saga describes the events at that thing:
King Hakon spoke [saying]… that they should become Christians and believe in one God, Christ, the son of Mary, and give up all blood offerings and heathen gods, keep holy the seventh day and not work, and fast every seventh day. And as soon as the king had said that before the people, there was straightway a mighty uproar… Asbjorn from Medalhus in Guldale stood up and answered his speech thus: "We bonders(7) thought, King Hakon… when thou hadst the first thing here in Trondheim and we took thee as king and got back from thee our odal(8) lands, that we had taken heaven in our very hands. But now we know not if we indeed have got our freedom, or if thou wilt thrall-bind us anew in this strange wise, that we must forgo the faith which our fathers and all our forefathers had before us, first in the burning age and now in the howe age; they were much greater than we and all the same this faith has availed us well.(9)
Hakon agreed to live by their beliefs, as he needed the support of the bondi of Trondheim, but he still intended to keep his religion. At a later feast, he made the sign of a cross over a horn dedicated to Odin. When a man complained of this, feeling that it showed the king was not truly willing to live by their faith, Hakon's jarl, Sigurd claimed that he had made the sign of the Thor, not the cross. That quieted the bondi of Trondheim for a time, but the next day, the bondi insisted that Hakon eat horseflesh, which he would not do. Finally, after much goading, he agreed to inhale the steam from a soup of horseflesh, which did not satisfy the bondi completely, but at least pacified the worst of their grumbling. However, it is obvious that he eventually satisfied them, for the Tronds stood with him against the sons of Eric the next year.(10)
In 961, the sons of Eric Bloodaxe (primarily, Harald Greycloak, the eldest(11)) and Eric's widow Gunnhild succeeded Hakon. They, too, had become Christians in England and attempted to convert their subjects to Christianity. When they met with no more success than Hakon had, however, they destroyed the temples and sacrifices wherever they found them.(12) Harald of the Danes (also known as Bluetooth and Gormson) had attempted a mission, but the people soon returned to the old ways, rather than stay with the alien faith.(13) Little progress was made in the conversion of the country, especially Trondheim, until the time of Olaf Trygvason, who was born some seven years after the death of Hakon the Good, and became king in 995.
When Olaf Trygvason became king, he made clear to his kinsfolk and friends that he wished to make all of Norway Christian. Many men of the Vik(14) (where Olaf was at the time) readily became Christian at his request, and because of their numbers, others followed them. When he went southwest to Agder(15), the people there underwent baptism to appease the king.(16)
The men of Rogaland(17) met Olaf armed, and sent three of their number to speak to him.
King Olaf stood up and first spoke blithely to the bonders. Yet it seemed from his speech that he wished them to take up Christianity; first with fair words he bade them do it, but at length he vowed that they who spoke against him and would not fall in with his behest should have from him wrath and torment and hard dealing everywhere.(18)
When the three bondi who were to answer him tried to speak, however, each fell to a malady of the voice; one coughed, the second stammered, and the third grew hoarse, and none of them could speak. Thus, Rogaland also became baptized, and soon afterward the folk of the Gulathing as well. In Stad at Dragseid, he offered either Christianity or battle, and the bondi were so outnumbered that they took the baptism. Olaf then looted and destroyed the temples of the old gods in Lade, and the men there and in Bjornor refused him, sending him back to the Vik for the winter.(19)
Olaf came at last to Trondheim, which had long clung to the old ways. He called a thing, and again bade the people to take up Christianity. They refused, and Olaf saw that there were many well-armed men there, so he did not push the issue, agreeing rather that he would meet them at Maeren for Midsummer. When they met at Maeren, Olaf acted as though he would sacrifice with them, but instead cast down the statue of Thor, and his soldiers knocked down the statues of the other Gods, while others killed the leader of the men of Trondheim. Without a leader to raise the army, the folk of Trondheim were baptized.(20)
King Olaf Trygvason eventually converted much of Norway, but its conversion lasted only a short time after his death at Svold in 1000 CE. According to Gretti's Saga, sacrificing or practicing the old customs in secret was not illegal under Olaf Trygvason, but if it was discovered, one could be banished for the it.(21) Also, his conversion of the country came at a high price, and was responsible for many killings of reputed wizards and the destruction of old shrines.(22) When the second King Olaf, known as Saint Olaf, took the throne of Norway in 1015, his methods were similar to those of Olaf Trygvason; he would call together a thing, and try to convince the people to convert. If they did not convert, he would offer them battle, and most would convert from fear of his army. Saint Olaf's death in battle in 1030 marked the end of heathenism as a major force in medieval Norway, as his growing cult of sainthood overwhelmed the frowned upon heathenism.(23) As more and more of Norway became Christian, the old beliefs were outlawed.(24)
Of Sweden's conversion, we know considerably less. The Swedes did not benefit as much as the Norwegians from the efforts of Snorre Sturlason, and, so while we must turn elsewhere. A mission, lead by one Anskar, went to the Swedes in 829, ostensibly at the request of King Bjorn, with their most prominent convert being a prefect of the market-town of Birka. This prefect is said to have maintained a church on his own land, but few other converts were made. Anskar, now Bishop of Hamburg, returned in 850, but was again largely unsuccessful.(25) We do not know of a Christian king until 1000, when Olaf Skotkonung came to power. While he tried to spread the influence of Christianity into the eastern part of the land, called Svealand, he met with little permanent success. Areas in constant contact with traders converted first, but heathenism continued near Uppsala until the beginning of the twelfth century.(26)
Cultural Impact
Obviously, examining the full cultural impact of conversion to Christianity is impossible, since that did not happen in a vacuum. As people were converting to the new faith, they were also living in a time of political change and growth. However, certain things can be observed, especially concerning kingship, the place of religion, and the perception of women.
The conversion brought with it a change in the nature of kingship and power in Scandinavia. Whereas power was once distributed amongst the things and therefore amongst the bondi who controlled them, Christianity brought with it an increasing centralization of power.(27) In part, this was because many missionaries owed their safety and primary earthly loyalty to the king, and thus encouraged people to direct their loyalties there. However, the very process of conversion, brought on as it was by kings, tended to increase their power. Referring back to the Heimskringla and Olaf Trygvason's time in Maeren, we see:
Iron-Skeggi answered the king's speech on the bonders' behalf, and said that the bonders wished the king as before not to break down their laws. … To his speech, the bonders gave a great applause and said they wished everything to be just as Skeggi had said. … The king's men leaped up and thrust down all the gods from their places; and whilst the king was in the temple Iron-Skeggi was slain outside the temple door; the king's men did it.(28)
Thus, those who would otherwise speak against the increased centralization of power were often the very men who had spoken against Christianity, and thus had been killed in the conversion. Whether these were resistances against the king or his church mattered little; Christianity was a weapon to use against the strongly heathen parts of the kingdom that would not bow to either Olaf.(29)
Religion also changed, not just its form and precepts, but its place in society. A heathen king was more than simply the head of state, or even an administrator ordained by God to look over the affairs of men, as Christianity held. The king served also as the chief priest and leader of the district-wide religious rites.(30) The heathen beliefs were largely hearth-based, and a part of the function of the household. Whereas the male and female heads of a heathen household lead their family in religious observances, the king (or the gothi and gythjur) lead the people in an extension of the metaphor of the familial unit.(31) Just as a father led a household, so did a king lead his people. This changed with the coming of Christianity, which put religious specialists in charge.
Religious specialists in heathen times were largely limited to volur and seithmenn(32), who were themselves devoted to the cult of a specific god. Christianity changed religion from a communal experience to a personal one. Each person was responsible for his or her own salvation or damnation, and, while Christianity did not remove religion from the daily life of the people, it did entrust the better part of its formal practice almost entirely to religious specialists in the form of priests.(33) This served not only to weaken the bonds of family, but also to change the fabric of society, since the community had less hold on one's spiritual well being. In addition, the fact that all priests were male brought to the fore another change, that of the status of women.
Scandinavian women always had a large degree of personal freedom and equality with their men under heathendom. While Jochens correctly points out that heathen women had little say in whom they married, they maintained an extraordinary amount of freedom outside the marriage. In heathen terms, marriage was largely an economic arrangement, providing for the smooth inheritance of goods. Divorce was easy to obtain(34), and widows had a large degree of personal freedom (as is evidenced by Queen Gunnhild in Njal's Saga(35)). Under Christianity, women were free to choose who they married, but those choices were often final; much of their freedom outside of marriage was restricted, as was their ability to divorce their husbands.(36)
Perhaps most importantly, though, one can see the degradation of the woman's position in the doctrinal teachings of Christianity, and the role models offered. Heathen sources showed ideal women who were strong and capable (such as the Valkyries,(37) their leader Freyja,(38) and Frigga(39)). Christianity, however, urged women to be subject to men in all things.(40) This attitude obviously did not change for a long time, as events of the twentieth century bear out.
A change of religion is often a profound moment in an individual's life. It can alter attitudes, actions, and even thought processes. How much more profound, then, when an entire nation changes its religion, and is in some cases forcibly indoctrinated into another? The textual evidence makes clear that the Scandinavian religious change in the late tenth and early eleventh centuries was not embraced by the people, but rather forced upon them by their leaders. Were these texts heathen in origin, one could question their bias, but that luxury is not afforded to the scholar, since the writers were Christian, and were, at worst, guilty of romanticizing their past. The resulting changes in Scandinavian society, then, should not be seen as natural evolutions in the character of its people, but rather impositions by leaders who were often raised far from their people.
Spoke then Göndul,
on spearshaft leaning:
"Groweth now the gods' following,
since Hákon hath been
with host so goodly
bidden home by the gods."(41)
Works Cited
Andrea, Alfred J. The Medieval Record. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin Company, 1997
Derry, Thomas Kingston. A History of Scandinavia. Boston: George Allen & Unwin, 1979
DuChaillu, Paul B. The Viking Age, Vols. I-II. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1889.
Englemann, Kurt E. "Lithuania" Microsoft Encarta 97 Encyclopedia [CD-ROM] Microsoft Corporation, 1997
Finnson, Eyvind. Hakonarmal. Translation provided by R. S. Radford, via e-mail.
Guerber, H. A.. Myths of the Norsemen: from the Eddas and Sagas. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1992
Jochens, Jenny. Women in Old Norse Society. London: Cornell University Press, 1995
Jones, Gwyn. A History of the Vikings, 2nd edition. New York: Oxford University Press, 1984
Magnusson, Magnus and Paulsson, Hermann, translators. Njal's Saga. New York: Penguin Books, 1960
Olsen, Olaf. "Christianity and Churches". From Roesdahl, Else and Wilson, David, ed. From Viking to Crusader: The Scandinavians and Europe, 800-1200. New York: Rizzoli International Publications, 1992
Steinsland, Gro. "Scandinavian Paganism". From Roesdahl, Else and Wilson, David, ed. From Viking to Crusader: The Scandinavians and Europe, 800-1200. New York: Rizzoli International Publications, 1992
Sturlason, Snorre (Erling Monsen, ed., A.H. Smith, translator). Heimskringla. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1932
1 Einhard, Life of Charles the Great, reproduced in Andrea's The Medieval Record, pg. 138
2 Englemann, Kurt E. "Lithuania", Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia, 1997
3 Many words, especially names, of Scandinavian origin have multiple possible spellings in
English. When such is the case, I have opted for one spelling and used that, regardless of its
spelling in the original text. Also, the letter æ will be replaced with the diphthong ae, and the
letters ð and þ by the diphthong th. Since many names are repeated in the histories, the
confusion of multiple spellings for one name does not need to be added to an already complex
web.
4 Sturlason, Heimskringla, 86. It should be noted that the Heimskringla is a somewhat
inconsistently regarded source. For example, Jones, in his History of the Vikings, pg. 10,
mentions that it "can no longer be held to give coherence to early Norwegian history." However,
he himself quotes it extensively through out the text, noting that he often gives a very pro-Norwegian slant on things. Jones often contrasts him with Adam of Bremen, a source that was
unavailable for this paper.
5 It is unclear whether or not these clergymen were part of Hakon's personal retinue. While ibid.
pg. 86, indicates that "he sent to England for a bishop and other priests" once he was
established, Thomas Derry, in A History of Scandinavia, pg. 35, indicates that they came with
him as part of his retinue (likely with at least one as a personal confessor).
6 The Thing was similar to a combination of regional parliament and law court, giving the people
control over their laws and the enforcement. DuChaillu, The Viking Age, Vol. I, page 515
7 This refers to the class of men known as "Bondi". These landowners held sway over other men,
and had control of the thing. DuChaillu, The Viking Age, Vol. I, page 496.
8 Odal lands were those lands that a bondi inherited from his ancestors. Hakon's father, Harald
Fairhair, had taken these lands from the bondi, losing a good deal of their political support.
DuChaillu, The Viking Age, Vol. I, page 487.
9 Sturlason, Heimskringla, pg. 87-88
10 ibid., pg. 89-91.
11 Jones, History of the Vikings, pg. 124-124
12 Sturlason, Heimskringla, pg. 103-104, confirmed by Jones, History of the Vikings, pg. 124
13 Sturlason, Heimskringla, pg. 158-159
14 A region in Norway, near Oslo.
15 Agder is the southwest tip of the Scandinavian peninsula.
16 Ibid., pg. 159-160
17 Rogaland is northwest of Agder, near where the fjords become visible on a map; the city of
Stavanger is in the county today.
18 Ibid., pg. 160
19 Ibid., pg. 160-163.
20 Ibid., pg. 168-170
21 DuChaillu, The Viking Age, Vol. I, pg. 468. This is an odd facet of Scandinavian law that also
shows itself upon the conversion of Iceland. According to the law, one could still sacrifice in
secret, but if someone caught a sacrificer, the sacrificer was guilty of a crime. Jones, in A
History of the Vikings, mentions this on pg. 286,
22 There are many examples throughout the Heimskringla, such as pg. 166
23 Roesdahl and Wilson, From Viking to Crusader, pg. 155
24 DuChaillu, The Viking Age, Vol. I, pg.469-472
25 Jones, History of the Vikings, pg. 107
26 Roesdahl and Wilson, From Viking to Crusader, pg. 155
27 Roesdahl and Wilson, From Viking to Crusader, pg. 151
28 Sturlason, Heimskringla, pg. 170
29 Jones, A History of the Vikings, pg. 134
30 This is the capacity in which Hakon serves, and Olaf Tryggvason is expected to, in the
Heimskringla, on pages 88-90 and 169-170, respectively
31 Roesdahl and Wilson, From Viking to Crusader, pg. 148
32 These would be sorcerers and sorceresses. The different types of magic employed by each,
and their cultural meanings, could be a topic unto itself.
33 Ibid., pg. 151
34 Jochens, Women in Old Norse Society, pg. 33
35 Njal's Saga, pg. 44-49
36 Jochens, Women in Old Norse Society, pg. 17.
37 Guerber, Myths of the Norsemen, pg. 173
38 Ibid., pg. 131
39 Ibid., pg. 42
40 Roesdahl and Wilson, From Viking to Crusader, pg. 151
41 Finnson, Hakonarmal, verse 10. The Hakonarmal was a praise-poem for Hakon the Good.